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.CENTENNIAL 

CELEBRATION 



OF 



MANCHESTER, N. H. 

JUNE 13, I8I0-1910 



BY THE 



MANCHESTER 
HISTORIC ASSOCIATION 



"The key of Yesterday 1 threw away. 
And now, too late. 

Before To' morrow's closC' locked gate 
Helpless I stand-'in vain to pray I 
In vain to sorrow I 
Only the key of Yesterday unlocks To-morrow I" 



'I 
MANCHESTER, N.H. ] 



PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT 
19 10 






fe 




CENTENNIAL 

CELEBRATION 



OF 



MANCHESTER, N. H. 

JUNE 13, 1810^^1910 



BY THE 



MANCHESTER 
HISTORIC ASSOCIATION 



"The key of Yesterday I threw away. 
And now, too late. 

Before To-morrow's closc'lockcd gate 
Helpless I stand--in vain to pray I 
In vain to sorrow I 
Only the key of Yesterday unlocks To-morrow I" 



MANCHESTER, N, H. 

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT 

19 10 




MzMM 



INTRODUCTION 



At the annual meeting of the Manchester Historic 
Association held in their rooms, No. 64 Hanover Street, 
January 5, 19 10, G. Waldo Browne, Chairman of the Pub- 
lication Committee, referred to the fact that this was the 
centennial year of Manchester, it having received that 
name in exchange for its old title of Derryfield on June 13, 
1810, by act of the legislature. It seemed eminently fit- 
ting, therefore, that either the city in its official capacity 
or the Association, should the municipal body not feel dis- 
posed to do so, observe with appropriate exercises that 
important anniversary. Mr. Browne then moved that a 
committee be chosen to confer with the city officials rela- 
tive to the matter at an adjourned meeting. The motion 
prevailed, and ex-Mayor Edgar J. Knowlton, G. Waldo 
Browne, Fred W. Lamb, President Isaac Huse and Secre- 
tary Frank W. Sargeant were chosen as a committee. 

The committee thus elected presented the subject to 
the members of the city government, and though two 
thousand dollars had been appropriated for that purpose, 
that body did not think it advisable to undertake a cele- 
bration. Accordingly the Association voted unanimously 
to arrange for suitable exercises and a literary entertain- 
ment in the city hall on the evening of June 13. A special 
committee on the centennial celebration was then chosen, 
consisting of President Huse, William P. Farmer, Fred W. 
Lamb, Miss Mary Bell Willson and George Waldo Browne. 

3 



4 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

This committee immediately began work and, if hand- 
icapped in the want of funds, it was able to present what 
was unanimously consided a very successful order of enter- 
tainment. The hall was tastefully decorated with flags and 
butting, the decorations being in charge of William P. Far- 
mer. Back of the stage, forming a fine centre piece for 
the red, white and blue streamers, was a huge portrait of 
that stern old hero of two wars, Gen. John Stark, looking 
calmly down upon the representatives of the present Man- 
chester through the eyes of a century gone. The presid- 
ing officer's desk was draped with silk flags, and the walls 
were a mass of the national emblems festooning doors and 
windows with their beautiful and appropriate folds. 

The Daily Mirror, in its account of the celebration, 
says: "With superb decorations, excellent speaking, good 
music and an entertaining way of setting out historical 
facts, the Manchester Historic Association conducted a 
meeting last evening in the city hall for the general public 
which will go on record as one of the most successful gath- 
erings of its kind ever held in Manchester. While the hall 
was filled, the exercises deserved a larger hall and the at- 
tendance of thousands." The weather was fair, as if 
nature was in sympathy with the work, and nothing oc- 
curred to mar the success of the event. 



PROGRAM 



i 1. "Crndle Song" W. Tauhert 

SONG-] 2. "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" 

( Old English Song 

PUPILS OF WEBSTER-STREET SCHOOL 

Under Direction of Master John Gault 
INTRODUCTORY 

PRESIDENT ISAAC HUSE 

ADDRESS "The Honor of Old Derryfield" 

GEORGE WALDO BROWNE 

SONG "The Hymns of the Old Church Choir" 

HARLAND DAVIS 

ORATION "Manchester: Then and Now" 

HON. EDWIN F. JONES 

POEM "A Tribute to This Day" 

NELLIE M. BROWNE 

SONG, "The Spacious Firmament on High," 

From Creation 

PUPILS OF WEBSTER-STREET SCHOOL 

Under Direction of Master John Gault 
ADDRESS •••.... "The Ideal City" 

REV. WILLIAM H. MORRISON 
5 



OFFICERS FOR 1910 



PRESIDENT 

ISAAC HUSE 



VICE-PRESIDENTS 

JOHN DOWST Col. GEORGE C. GILMORE 

TREASURER 

HARRY T. LORD 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY 

G. WALDO BROWNE 

RECORDING SECRETARY 

FRANK W. SARGEANT 

LIBRARIAN 

FRED W. LAMB 

H ISTORIOGRAPHER 

FRANK M. FRISSELLE 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Dr. C. B. STURTEVANT J. G. ELLINWOOD 
W. P. FARMER Capt. DAVID PERKINS 

G. WALDO BROWNE 

PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 

G. WALDO BROWNE C. B. SPOFFORD 

W. E. DODGE E. J. KNOWLTON 

Miss MARY B. WILLSON 

SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 

ISAAC HUSE W. P. FARMER 

FRED W. LAMB G. WALDO BROWNE 

Miss MARY BELL WILLSON 
6 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 



Centennial of Manchester, N. H. 



June 13, 1810-1910 



Previous to the opening of the exercises, Miss Sylvia 
W. Lamb rendered selections upon the piano, and promptly 
at eight o'clock, on the evening of June 13, President Huse 
called the gathering to order, when the program was 
opened by an invocation by Rev. Burton W. Lockhart, 
D. D. The invocation by Dr. Lockhart was followed with 
songs by the pupils of the Webster-Street school, under 
the direction of the master, Mr. John Gault: 

1. "Cradle Song," W. Taubert. 

2. "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes," 

Old English Song. 

The President then introduced Mr. Fred W, Lamb, 
Librarian, who read the following letters: 

MiLFORD, N. H., June ii, 1910. 
Mr. I. Huse, Manchester: 

My Dear Mr. Huse, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your 
invitation to be present on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary 
of the settlement of your beautiful city. 

I regret that my previous engagements are such as to forbid me the 
pleasure. 

Trusting you may have a pleasant and profitable meeting, and thank- 
ing you for your kind and thoughtful invitation, I remain, 

Most truly yours, 

C. C. SHAW. 

Washington, D. C, June 8, 1910. 
To the Manchester Historic Association: 

I have received your invitation to attend the exercises in commemora- 
tion of the Hundredth Anniversary of Manchester, to be held in city hall, 

9 



10 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

June 13, 1910, with sincere gratification, and only regret that I am unable 
to be present on that interesting and historic occasion. 

No city in America is a more wonderful demonstration of the innate 
force of the social, economic and political institutions of our country, and 
of the wisdom and sturdy virtues of its founders and builders. She is our 
most cosmopolitan city, with the exception of New York; and it will be 
found difficult to specify a race, creed or nationality, or a single problem 
of modern civilization, which is not to be found in our dear Queen City, 
enthroned on the banks and hills of the Merrimack, beautiful for situation 
and the pride of the incomparable Old Granite State. 

The past is secure. Let us address ourselves to the duties before us 
so that, as we venerate the Fathers, we, with them, may be honorably 
remembered on the recurrence of this anniversary at the end of the cen- 
tury to come. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HENRY W. BLAIR. 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 
Henry B. Quinby, Governor 

Concord, N. H., June 11, 1910. 
Mr. Fred W. Lamb, Manchester: 

Dear Sir, — Your kind invitation for the 13th is received, but, I 
regret to say, my engagements will prevent my being present. 

Very truly, 

HENRY B. QUINBY. 

Town Hall, Manchester, Eng. 

June 2, 1910. 
My Dear Sir, — Your interesting letter of the i8th May, informing 
raethat one hundred years ago your town adopted the name of Manchester 
in the hope that it would attain a position of importance in manufac- 
tures and population, has given me great pleasure and I trust that your 
Centenary proceedings will prove a great success. 

Your expressions of goodwill towards us are much appreciated and 
reciprocated. 

I am, yours faithfully, 

CHARLES BEHRENS, 

Lord Mayor. 

Isaac Huse, Esq., President Manchester Historical Association. Manches- 
ter, New Hampshire. 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 11 

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT HUSE 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — One hundred years ago 
to-day, the name of our city (then a town) was changed 
from Derryfield to Manchester. We meet to-night to cele- 
brate the event, and the audience before me testifies that 
all of us are not so absorbed in business or pleasure but 
that we are mindful of the past and of those who have 
gone before us. 

This celebration had its inception in the minds of the 
officers and members of the Manchester Historic Associ- 
ation, and in their efforts to fittingly note the event they 
have had the sympathy and assistance of many others. A 
literary and musical program will be presented this evening 
by some of our public school children and prominent men, 
who will portray the virtues of our fathers and show us 
the wonderful changes which have taken place in one hun- 
dred years. 

Just a few words about our Association are fitting. It 
was organized fifteen years ago by those who realized the 
extreme value of well kept records of the past. Almost 
all who then entered into the association were those who 
had ancestry in this or neighboring towns. It was founded 
in memory of their fathers, and will continue to exist, to 
care for the records and memorials of you, who are here 
present, if you and your children have the same filial 
regard that has been shown by those who were the organ- 
izers and supporters of this Association. 

One hundred years ago the inhabitants of this Derry- 
field were either the descendants of the English Puritans of 
Massachusetts, or were the children of the Scotch-Irish 
who settled in what is now Derry and Londonderry. 
These two races have now become one, and we cannot 
tell one from another, except by the surname. Within the 
last half-century other, and many peoples and races have 
come to us and, in the course of events, these, too, will be 
as one. 



12 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

We have such a firm belief in the efficacy of American 
institutions, that we firmly believe the celebration of the 
next centennial of Manchester will be just as patriotically 
observed. We deem it safe to prophesy that, if the friends 
and citizens of Manchester will take due interest in our 
Association, it will, in the future, care for the records of our 
present time, that will, all too soon, be in the past. 

It may have seemed to the citizens of 1810 a wild pre- 
diction of Samuel Blodget, when he said that the falls of 
the Merrimack would cause a rude hamlet to become a city 
like the Manchester of England. We, here, this evening, 
are fully aware that he had the eye of a seer. Manchester 
has developed by leaps and bounds. 

The speakers of the evening will show you in forceful 
and vivid language the olden times and the changes to the 
present, but it will be perfectly proper for me to call your 
attention to one thing. We are not to listen to descrip- 
tions of scenes and places in foreign lands, but of the very 
spot where we go about our daily tasks. Some in this 
room had ancestors who were directly concerned in the 
changing of the name from Derryfield to Manchester. 
Many others had fathers who saw the changing of barren 
pine plains to a hustling city. 

The roads that we drive over were laid out by our 
fathers; over these the troops marched to Bunker Hill, and 
to recruit the armies of new-born states in years that fol- 
lowed; the waters of the Merrimack roared and foamed 
over the same rocks that we see; the Uncanoonucs were 
then the same watch towers in the west; Lake Massabesic 
lay then, as now, in the snug recesses of the Auburn and 
Manchester woods; the Cohas wound its way through 
woods and meadows to the Merrimack; over all, the bright 
and sunny sky of June, and the bitter winds of winter. In 
and about these scenes we see, in imagination, the ox teams 
winding their slow way winter and summer over the same 
roads that we travel in carriage and automobile; the blazing 
fires of the huge fireplaces have disappeared, and in their 




OLD DERRVFIELD MEETING HOUSE 




'f^^^^^L. ' 



OLD SCHOOL HOUSE IN DERRYFIELD 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 13 

places we have the unpoetic stove and furnace; the spin- 
ning-wheel and the loom were in the corner where now 
stands the piano; the tallow candle was used where now 
we use the electric light. 

If we can picture in our minds the times of long ago, 
we shall doubly enjoy the addresses which will follow. 

I now, with pleasure, introduce the first speaker of the 
evening. He is well known to you as the author of numer- 
ous literary works. He has been the editor of all the pub- 
lications of the Association, and a large part of its success 
has been due to him. 

Mr. George Waldo Browne will address you on the 
subject, "In Honor of Old Derryfield." 

IN HONOR OF OLD DERRYFIELD 

Mr. Preside?it, Jlembers of the Jlanchester Historic 
Association^ Ladies and Gentletnen: 

The history of our little commonwealth naturally 
divides itself into three parts: The period of the pioneer; 
the period of the patriot; the period of the manufacturer. 
The story of the first begins among the traditions of a 
debatable ground, when the drumbeats of Namaske kept 
ceaseless time to the subdued melody of the aged forest 
and the stealthy tread of moccasined feet; the story of the 
second period begins amid the tangled records of a name- 
less territory, where the shadow of the Amerind lingered 
and the gaunt wolf still lurked; the third begins with the 
roll and rumble of the factory wheel and is woven in the 
fabric of mill and mart. The first is a tale that is told, a 
romance that loses itself on the borderland of history; the 
last merges in the realities of to-day. Mine is the task to 
speak briefly of the interval between, known by the 
euphonious name of "Old Derryfield." 

Among some of the races of the earth it has been the 
custom to take on new names at different periods to denote 
the action of the existing phase of life. These changes 



14 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

are always made with wonderful fidelity to the spirit of the 
contemporary interval. It has been something like this 
with our good old township. Originally its furious rapids, 
then treble the volume and violence of to-day, wrung from 
the dusky browed beholders the gutteral exclamation 
Kaskoyishadi, "place of broken waters!" Upon closer asso- 
ciation and better acquaintance with its resources, they 
came to know it as Namaaket, "great place for fish." In 
the twilight of tradition, the whites came and named the 
country "Nutfield." Anon a rival people penetrating 
hither called it "Tyng's Township," in honor of the veteran 
leader of the snow-shoe scouts. Falling from the grace of 
these godfathers, it became known by the derisive epithet 
of "Old Harry's Town," Outliving this inglorious title, 
and becoming the heart of a new township, it was chris- 
tened "Derryfield," on closer association called "Old 
Derryfield." Still the end was not reached and, entering 
upon a career of greater prosperity, it took on the more 
pretentious, if borrowed, patronymic of Manchester. 

The term "Old Derryfield" does not imply either pity 
or ridicule, as one might at first think. Incorporated Sep- 
tember 3, 175 1, disbarred June 13, 18 10, it was less than 
three-score years of age, and had barely laid the founda- 
tion for civic usefulness, when called upon to surrender its 
title. The name is not applied with tenderness, as we 
might address one who is frail and deserving of sympathy, 
for the sturdy, uncompromising character of her people 
has become an example. What then is meant by this sug- 
gestive prefix."* I think it must be reverence — reverence 
for the loyal women and patriotic men who hewed out of 
the dark background of their environments the window of 
freedom to let in the light of progress and prosperity in 
which we stand to-day. 

In as few words as possible, I am to tell you of some 
of the deeds they performed; some of the duties that fell 
to their fortune; some of the milestones they set along the 
pathway of human events. In the few mmutes given me, 
I cannot do justice to them or their work. 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 15 

The three-score years of Old Derryfield cover the 
most momentous events in the history of our town, state 
and country. They cover the period of the French and 
Indian War, which, after a century of conflict, brought 
peace and freedom from a foe that had never slept; they 
cover the seven years and more that tried men's souls and 
won the independence of the thirteen colonies; they cover 
the time of the anxious awakening of the colonists to the 
possibilities of religious faith, educational advantages and 
industrial reward; they mark the beginning of progress 
and development of the resources of the Merrimack valley, 
and have founded the story that is to follow mine. 

The charter of Old Derryfield contained about thirty- 
five square miles of territory made up of a corner of Ches- 
ter, a slice of Londonderry and three miles of sand dunes 
facetiously styled "Old Harry's Town," the loaf leavened 
with the hitherto ungranted privileges of Amoskeag Falls. 
The inhabitants then numbered less than three hundred, 
and were mainly located at the mouth of the Cohas brook, 
around the Falls, the vicinity of Massabesic and the section 
now known to us as "The Centre." 

If few in numbers, these inhabitants were about evenly 
divided into distinct factions. One consisted of Scotch- 
Irish, so called, the vanguard of whom had come to fish at 
the falls as early as 17 19, and a little later had pushed this 
way as settlers. Following closely upon their heels were 
the descendants of colonists who had come to New Eng- 
land nearly a hundred years before, from western England, 
and who had settled at the falls of Cohas and Amoskeag, 
by virtue of a grant made by Massachusetts to Capt. Wil- 
liam Tyng's snow-shoe men, in April, 1735. Difference in 
the source of their rights as settlers; difference in religious 
sentiments; in racial characteristics; difference in the teach- 
ings of home and family and all that was dear to them, 
made these two parties intense rivals. This rivalry not 
only disturbed the peace but hindered progress. 

Again this territory became debatable ground, and 



16 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

here was fought through the bitter animosities of mis- 
guided leaders the boundary war between the colonies of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Claiming a strip of 
country three miles along the eastern bank of the Merri- 
mack River, the lower province, in April, 1735, granted 
this tract to some of its soldiers in the Indian wars, and 
this band of men who enjoyed the distinction of being 
Captain Tyng's snow-shoe scouts undertook its settlement. 
Then followed six years of earnest contention. Their 
rights disputed by the Scotch, who thought to hold it by a 
title from New Hampshire, for six years the struggle waxed 
and waned. The Massachusetts men built the first meeting- 
house in the Merrimack valley above Lowell, they erected a 
saw-mill, they cleared their lots in the wilderness, they 
builded homes, they defended their common interests 
stubbornly, until in May, 1741, the courts decided 
against them or, rather, the courts that had granted them 
these homesteads proved unable to sustain their jurisdic- 
tion. Despoiled of their homes, the handful of dis- 
appointed planters departed, except those who paid for the 
privileges they had already dearly earned. 

With the annulment of the grant of Tyng Township, 
the Londonderry colonists failing to hold their title here. 
Old Harry's Town became no man's land, without govern- 
ment, without civil protection. Hither came from near-by 
and far away adventurous spirits to fish in the waters of 
Amoskeag, aggressive, non-compromising, the foremost the 
victor, the last the vanquished in many a hotly contested 
quarrel for individual supremacy. A decade of this lawless 
condition, and order was brought out of chaos by the incor- 
poration, September 3, 1751, of the township of Derryfield, 
which should have been christened Amoskeag for once 
and always. 

Almost before the oflficers of the new township had 
become acquainted with their recent power, news of another 
outbreak upon the part of the French and Indians awoke 
the province to the fact that their safety was again in 




u 

M 






CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 17 

jeopardy. Though the base of action this time was 
removed from the Merrimack valley, it was the men from 
this vicinity, and largely from Old Derryfield, who led in 
the seven years of conflict. In anticipation of this strug- 
gle, a body of men had been trained in the tactics of forest 
warfare, and scarcely had the alarm been given when 
Rogers' Rangers were found in the thick of the fight. 
Foremost among these was that tutor of woodcraft, John 
Goffe, already the hero of two wars. Side by side with 
Rogers, the chieftain, who might have claimed his home 
here, were the Stark brothers, William, John and Archi- 
bald; Samuel Blodget, of Louisburg fame, whose life-story 
is more closely connected with that of our own his- 
tory than any other, was there to give his history of 
the battle of Lake George. There, too, were Samuel 
Moore, Major John Moore, the Knight of Old Derryfield, 
from Goffe's Falls, both tried and true; Nathaniel and John 
Martin, valiant defenders of home and country. Nor can 
we forget gallant John Pollard, or cease to remember the 
martyr, John McKeen, who died at the torture stake. 
And this list, all of whom were from Old Derryfield, com- 
prises only a small portion of the heroes who shouldered 
their queen's arm muskets and went with Rogers to stem 
the tide of French invasion upon the shore of the storied 
Horicon. Ay, remove this sturdy band of patriots from 
the war-roll of that stirring period, and the banner of King 
George, in spite of his trained soldiery, the flower of the 
Old World army, would have been trampled under the feet 
of Montcalm and his dusky allies, and New England would 
have been New France. 

The victory secured at home. Col. William Stark, a 
son of Old Derryfield, and captain of the Rangers, was 
sent at the head of the New Hampshire regiment to aid 
Abercrombie in the second reduction of that stronghold of 
French power, Louisburg. Successful there, the New 
England warriors of the wilderness, whom General Wolfe 
thought proper to distinguish as the Royal Americans, 



18 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

were added to the British forces in their campaign against 
the Rock of the St. Lawrence, Quebec. In close associ- 
ation with the commander, throughout that arduous and 
desperate attack, Colonel Stark and his brave comrades 
were among those who climbed to deathless glory upon the 
Plains of Abraham. Our own Stark was one of the 
four to bear the dying conqueror away from the storm of 
leaden hail, and who stood by him as he rallied at the cry: 
"They run!" "Who run.?" demanded Wolfe, rallying. 
"The French!" "Then I die content," declared the sink- 
ing warrior. 

With less than fifty men fit for military duties, Derry- 
field had more than half that number in active service 
throughout that sanguinary struggle, and every man a hero. 
What town can show so proud a record.? Not one in all 
the provinces to equal it. 

I need not dwell upon the decade that followed — ten 
years and more of the marshalling of civil forces, the 
framing of laws to govern them in peaceful pursuits, the 
difference of opinions that always predominated in spite of 
honest purpose. You cannot wonder if these battle- 
scarred, war-trained veterans stood stubbornly each for 
what he believed to be his unalienable rights, even if he 
erred at times in judgment, until those years were stamped 
with uncompromising discord, but never darkened with 
disloyalty to truth, home and God. Natures so dissimilar 
could not be assimilated in one generation. Religious 
thought had not yet been chastened with the rod of reason; 
education had not awakened to the broader path of enlight- 
enment. But out of this furnace of bitter experience was 
to come a more conservative people. 

In the midst of this anxious era, during which the 
number of the inhabitants slowly grew less rather than 
more, war again stepped in to turn the minds of the people 
into a channel that must become the trend of all purpose, 
the defence of home and country. Had I the time, I could 
show to you that the opening gun of the Revolution was 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 19 

fired in this vicinity, and the British had barely begun their 
retreat from Lexington before John Stark had left his mill 
at Amoskeag and started towards the seat of war. Every 
able-bodied man in Derryfield, save two, immediately joined 
the rush to the front. Twenty-three of her sons fought 
under Capt. John Moore, the Knight of Old Derryfield, 
and with others from this vicinity stood behind the rail 
fence and grass breast works on Bunker Hill, upon that 
memorable 17th of June, when the invading host awoke to 
the realization that it had no slight task on hand. They 
tell us not one of the men from Derryfield fell in that 
terrific fight, but, when the smoke of battle had cleared, it 
was found that ninety-six of the red-coats lay on the field, 
mute witnesses of their unerring skill earned in border 
warfare. 

June I, 1776, every man in Derryfield, able to perform 
military duty, save those already at the front, signed the 
declaration of fidelity demanded by the Committee of 
Safety. Not a Tory here. Those then in the army were 
Col. John Stark, Col. John Moore, James McCalley, Capt. 
Alexander McMurphy, Capt. Nathaniel Martin, Nathaniel 
and Benjamin Baker, Sergt. Theopholis Griffin, and Lieut. 
Ephraim Stevens. Stark was with his regiment on that 
ill-advised campaign into Canada, and was at the head of 
a division under Sullivan at Trenton and Princeton, As it 
had been at Bunker Hill, it was the men from the Merri- 
mack valley who bore the brunt of the battle, who, more 
than others deserved the credit of the glory of the day. 
The sons of Old Derryfield were under the command of 
Sergt. Ephraim Stevens, and a mere handful of sixteen, 
following border tactics, captured sixty Hessians. General 
Sullivan, in reporting the results of the battle to the Com- 
mittee of Safety, frankly said: "Believe me, the Yankees 
took Trenton before the other troops knew anything of 
the matter." 

The crowning glory of Old Derryfield remained to be 
won at Bennington, when her favorite son, placing love of 



20 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

country above personal wrongs, led his New Hampshire 
comrades to the proudest victory of that long and trying 
struggle for independence, a victory that brought hope to 
bosoms of despair, that raised permanently the standard of 
triumph against foreign oppression, and paved the way to 
freedom in America. So through all the vicissitudes of 
those trying years, whether at the front or amid the 
arduous duties at home, helping to sustain the war, Old 
Derryfield was never faithless to her trust. I have not the 
time to even mention the names of more than a trio of her 
heroes: Major John Webster, who was among the first in 
the field, among the last to lay aside his sword, was always 
foremost in the fray. Samuel Stark, a brother of General 
John Stark, who became honorably distinguished as "Uncle 
Sam," the first, to my knowledge, to bear the appellation 
since figuratively applied to the head of our government. 
Capt. Ephraim Webster, the boy sharpshooter of Benning- 
ton, and young scout of Old Ti, who in later years became 
the peace maker of the Onandagas of the Mohawk Valley, 
doing valiant service to the cause of the Americans, and 
who sleeps to-night honored by a monument raised to his 
memory by the Empire State. 

"But after years the tale shall tell 

In words of light revealed; 
Who bravely fought — who nobly fell, 

And many a well-earned field, 
Outspread beneath the west'ring sun, 

Shall live with ancient Sparta's name, 
And Trenton's fight, and Bennington 

Be linked with old Platea's fame." 

The war over and liberty an assured fact, we find her 
sons quickly falling into the ranks of peaceful duties. 
The men who had stood shoulder to shoulder in the brunt 
of battle now felt less of bitterness in times of peace. 
Religious differences softened, and personal demands 
assumed more conservative ends. Comrades at last came 
to see that the interest of one was the common good of 




CO HAS BROOK 




BLODCiET HOUSE 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 21 

all. Henceforth we see a gradual breaking clown of bar- 
riers, old forms and customs changing with the new order 
of affairs. At the beginning of the Revolution, Derry- 
field had 285 inhabitants, consisting of 140 free males, 142 
free females, and three slaves. At the close of its career, 
less than six hundreds. 

Previous to December, 1775, warnings for town meet- 
ings and other public gatherings were opened with the dec- 
laration "In his Majestie's name," which was now succeeded 
by the new term "In the name of America." At a special 
town meeting, October 23, 1776, the designation "State of 
New Hampshire" was used for the first time, this following 
"Colony," which had earlier succeeded "Province." On 
November 20, 1776, tor the first time we find, "In the 
name and virtue of the Younighted States of America." 

During the regime of Old Derryfield, the first steps 
were taken towards the separation of church and state. 
During these years the first definite action was taken 
towards the establishment of schools, and on Christmas 
day, 1781, it was voted to hire a schoolmaster "nine months 
this yearcomeing." In 1793, classed with Litchfield, Derry- 
field sent its first representative to the state legislature. 
Major John Webster, a hero of the Revolution. In 1792, 
the gore of land called Henrysburgh was annexed to the 
town. In 1795, the first schoolhouse was built by private 
subscription, on the Bluffs near the Falls of Amos- 
skeag. This building was bought by the town at a 
vote March 5, 1798, and two other houses were ordered to 
be built. A social library had already been established, 
the second in the state, and at last the cause of education 
had gained a firm foothold. 

The critical historian, without looking below the sur- 
face, stops to descant upon their lack of homely virtues; 
delights to dwell upen their religious dissensions, their 
inappreciation of education; how they sought to throw pro- 
tection about the slippery eel, and scorned to encourage 
progression; pictures to us in vivid language the brawls of 



22 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N, H. 

boatmen and quarrels of greedy fishermen. No doubt 
they were men of rough exterior, men carrying still, in 
their minds and hearts, the influence of conflict, the strug- 
gle of border warfare, the fury of stubborn yet honest 
natures. The task before them was the same as has been 
performed by the vanguard of civilization in all ages. 
Theirs to clear the forest beneath whose shade they had 
pitched their tent; theirs to break the root-bound sod of 
the primeval wilderness; theirs to meet and overcome 
obstacles that must have deterred less determined spirits; 
theirs the will and the power to build better than they 
knew. One generation of such men is worth more to the 
upbuilding of the human race than half a dozen reared in 
aflBuence and trained in idleness. 

With the broadening of educational interests, industry 
received a marked impetus. The pioneer in this respect 
was the Hon. Samuel Blodget, who more than any other 
man foresaw the future possibilities of the power of the 
Merrimack. The valley of the river far up into the state, 
even into Vermont, if sparsely settled promised a rich har- 
vest of trade to the centers which could draw it. Better 
ways of communication became a necessity. Turnpikes 
under the control of corporations were then the main arte- 
ries of business. Moved by slow going ox teams over 
these priced highways, the movement of produce and mer- 
chandise became both expensive and tedious. In this 
dilemma Judge Blodget saw that the Merrimack river could 
be made to become the great maritime road for the trans- 
portation of goods. Though a man then in his seventieth 
year, he entered upon the herculean task of making the 
river navigable. To do this the bed of the stream had not 
only got to be made clear, but the rapids must be sur- 
mounted. This the majority believed to be impossible. 
The most formidable obstruction was at the Falls of Amos- 
keag, and here Judge Blodget, confident of his ultimate 
success, began upon the morning of May 2, 1793, the 
mightiest task ever undertaken in this country by a single 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 23 

individual at that time. Then followed fourteen years of 
earnest work; fourteen years of expenditure of what was, 
for the times, large sums of money; fourteen years of 
intense anxiety; fourteen years of the persecution of 
enemies and the faith of friends; fourteen years filled with 
vexatious disappointments and hardships; fourteen years, 
any one of which must have discouraged a less sanguine 
person than the stalwart projector of this great work; four- 
teen years of sacrifice to the upbuilding of the public good; 
fourteen years — and then another May morning, 1807, when 
the conqueror rode in triumph through the canal of his 
construction, amid the plaudits of a vast concourse of peo- 
ple who had gathered to witness this trial. At last Old 
Namaske had been conquered by man. 

From the day of Judge Blodget's triumph, the entire 
history of Old Derryfield was changed. Already the first 
cotton mill had been erected across the river, and the hum 
of factory wheels was lending its subdued melody to the 
deeper tone of old Amoskeag. Marvelous changes were 
already springing into action. The old ways were ban- 
ished, even as one race had been dispersed to make room 
for another. Old customs must yield to new; old slow 
moving methods to the advanced movements of progress. 
The songs of an idle river and the music of the mighty 
anthems of the forests were supplanted by the voices of 
their conquerors. 

But it is not for me to tell this story. It belongs to 
another era. I have already gone beyond the limit allowed 
me and must close. Had I a choice, I could not ask for a 
more fitting climax for my remarks. 

Not only did Judge Blodget spend his ample fortune 
in the construction of his canal, but he prepared for further 
improvements and upbuilding at the falls. He instructed 
his son, Benjamin, to build a bridge from the west bank of 
the Merrimack over the rapids to Amoskeag Island, noted 
then as a fishing resort, and in only a few years became 
the site of one of the pioneer cotton mills in Manchester. 



24 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

He further anticipated the coming industries by purchasing 
a large area of land in Hooksett, having clay beds, with 
the idea of making brick with which to build manufac- 
tories. Nor was this dream unfulfilled, though he did not 
realize any profit from it. These same clay beds were later 
purchased by the Hon. Richard H. Ayer, and when the 
time came for them to be used the brick were made there 
that were utilized in constructing not only mills but busi- 
ness blocks and dwellings in the new town. 

The history of Old Derryfield belongs to that of 
heroic days. Take from her, if you will, the glory of the 
years of industry that have followed, but you cannot dim 
the lustre of patriotism that brightens her memory. You 
cannot efface from her record the bravery of border wars, 
the heroism of the Horicon, the daring of Mount Abra- 
ham, the awakening of Bunker Hill, the spirit of Trenton, 
the history of Bennington, any more than you can despoil 
her of the glory of the conquest of Amoskeag. 

The men and women of that period were typical of 
their times and surroundings, with the hardy courage 
to make the stand against the dangers of their day; with 
the will and the power to crush the foe that lay in wait 
for them; with the wisdom and the spirit to stamp these 
sand dunes with the seal of the coming metropolis. This 
was the legacy they left us, as we must leave our legacy to 
those who follow to-morrow. 

"Needs there be praise of the love written record, 
The name and the epitaph graved on the stone? 
The things we have lived for, let them be our story, 

We, ourselves, but remembered for what we have done." 

Following this address a slight change was made in the 
order of the program, and the pupils of the Webster-Street 
school gave a beautiful rendering of "The Spacious Firma- 
ment on High," from Creation. 

The President then introduced Edwin F. Jones, Esq., 
as a well-known orator, a successful lawyer and a former 
schoolmate, who delivered the following oration on "Man- 
chester; Then and Now." 




Gkn. JOHN STARK 




Hon. SAMUEL BLODGET 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 25 

MANCHESTER— THEN AND NOW 

We meet here to-night to celebrate the one hundredth 
anniversary of the naming of the municipahty of Man- 
chester. The simple change of the name Derryfield to 
Manchester may seem a small thing to celebrate, but it 
marks an epoch in the life of our community and furnishes 
an appropriate occasion for our people to pause a bit in the 
daily routine of existence; to turn from the thoughts and 
labors of our work-a-day lives and spend a little while in 
contemplating the past; to consider what manner of men 
and women they were who have gone before us, what they 
did when they occupied the place where we now make our 
homes, and how we compare with them in purpose and 
achievement. 

To the man who sees only the practical side of things, 
and to whom money getting seems the chief aim in life, 
such a celebration may appear trivial. But we must 
remember that human nature has an aesthetic side which 
needs developing, that there is another view of existence 
beside the utilitarian one. Knowledge is a good thing of 
itself, without regard to its practical application, and what- 
ever adds to a man's knowledge adds to his power to carry 
on properly the activities of life. To increase that power 
is the main purpose of education, and no part of the cur- 
riculum of the schools is more important than the study of 
history, and the history of no part of the world is more 
interesting and instructive than that of the community in 
which one lives, and so far as such occasions as this tend 
to foster an interest in the growth of the home community 
and to increase the knowledge of the local events and peo- 
ple of bygone days, they justify the time and labor involved 
in promoting them. 

I shall recur no further into the past than the single 
century which closes tonight. The story of Indian life at 
this seat of tribal government, of the bold and hardy con- 
duct of the first settlers in the wilderness, of the deeds of 



26 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

the Rangers which lend a romantic flavor to the tales of 
the Indian wars, of the heroic struggles of the Revolution 
when Derryfield sent so large a proportion of its able- 
bodied men to fight in the cause of liberty and popular 
government, — these things have no place in my remarks. 
My task is to try to picture the town which, one hundred 
years ago to-day, was re-baptized, and to draw the contrast 
which the present condition of the same territory affords, 
"Then and Now" is my theme. 

On the bank of the river now known as the Irwell, in 
that part of England called Lancashire, the ancient 
Roman had a camp or "castrum" named "Mancunium." 
The Saxon records show that about the year 923, King 
Edward sent a number of his Mercian troops to repair 
and garrison the fortress at "Manig-ceaster." The place 
was mentioned in the Doomsday Book as one of four in 
Western Lancashire. It is known that woolen manufac- 
turing was carried on there in the 13th century, and in the 
reign of Henry VI, in the year 1552, laws were passed by 
parliament, regulating the length of "Manchester cotton," 
which, notwithstanding their name, were probably woolen 
goods. In 1850, the cloth manufacturers of Manchester 
ranked among the first in England in extent and impor- 
tance and its people were described as "the most industri- 
ous in the northern part of the kingdom." The inade- 
quate supply of cotton goods, along the middle of the i8th 
century, stimulated efforts for increasing the means of 
production; and the machines successively invented by 
Arkwright, Hargreaves and others, furnished the means, 
and the efficiency of these machines was greatly heightened 
by the perfection of Watts' steam engine. In 1783, Man- 
chester, with Salford on the other side of the river, which 
bears the same relation to old Manchester, as West Man- 
chester now bears to this side of the Merrimack river, 
although it has always had a separate borough government, 
had a population of 39,000, mainly given over to the manu- 
facture of cloth. This was the Manchester which Samuel 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 27 

Blodget prophesied would be equalled by Old Derryfield 
when the power of the Amoskeag Falls was properly har- 
nessed to the uses of the spindle and loom. In a certain 
sense, the prophesy has been literally fulfilled. Our Man- 
chester is "the Manchester of America," and it is, to-day, 
larger and more prosperous than was the original Manches- 
ter when Judge Blodget returned from England in 1787. 
Our municipality has progressed farther in the last hun- 
dred years than did the English Manchester in thirteen 
centuries of known history. 

In 1810, the Town of Derryfield consisted of that part 
of our present city which lies east of the Merrimack river. 
Amoskeag was then a part of Goffstown, and what we call 
West Manchester, then the little village of Piscataquog, 
was a part of Bedford. And it was not until 1853 that the 
territory west of the river was annexed to Manchester. 
This town of Derryfield was inhabited by a population of 
615, according to the census of 1810, farmers, lumbermen, 
boatmen and their families. A very few persons resident 
here may have been working in a small mill on the Goffs- 
town side of the river, near the falls. By the Blodget 
canal, it was possible to pass a boat around the falls. In 
this community life was prosaic and uneventful. Neither 
great riches nor dire poverty existed here. The people 
were vigorous and independent; they had to work hard to 
extract a living from the unwilling soil. They gave some 
little attention to education, maintaining schools in five 
school districts, but there, probably, was not a college 
educated man in the town; there was no doctor, lawyer or 
settled minister. The people were more orthodox in their 
belief than in their conduct. Amusements were scarce. 
A barn raising or husking bee brought the young folks 
together. Wrestling was a favorite sport and at times the 
friendly bouts developed into free fights. Rum, West 
Indian or New England, was the prime accessory at all 
gatherings, whether at dance or wedding or funeral. It 
was a democratic community where every man was as good 



28 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H, 

as his neighbor, and oftentimes, in his own opinion, a little 
better. It was a typical frontier settlement, in that state 
which follows the complete expulsion of the native savages 
and sees the beginnings of a real civilized existence. 

The men of Derryfield were a homogeneous lot. They 
were the first or second generation following the hardy set- 
tlers who made New Hampshire, who, with wives and chil- 
dren, pushed out into the wilderness, climbed the lofty 
hills and dotted their slopes with happy homes, and, by 
their industry planted the fair valleys of the Merrimack 
and Connecticut, and builded here a commonwealth where 
freedom dwelt; where they could worship God after the 
dictates of their own consciences and were asked to call no 
man master. The fathers of the men of Derryfield — and 
some of them as well, — had assisted prominently in over- 
throwing kingly rule in America, to the end that the rule 
of the people might have full sway. In the town meeting, 
all local matters were argued and decided, and Derryfield 
had an equal opportunity with Litchfield to be represented 
every other year in the legislature of the state. 

If would appear that there were but two facts which 
made our old town at all notable. One was Amoskeag 
Falls, with their fisheries and possibilities; the other was 
that General John Stark still lived and had his home here. 
The old hero, after his eminent services in the Revolution, 
refused public office except in his town, devoted his time to 
farming and to his lumbering interests, accumulated a com- 
fortable property, and, surrounded by his children and 
grandchildren, was enjoying a happy and serene old age. 

At the Derryfield town meeting, held March 13, 1810, 
the following vote was passed: "Voted Thomas Stickney, 
John G. Moore & Amos Weston be a Committee to peti- 
tion the General Court to have the name of the Town of 
Derryfield altered to that of Manchester." Thomas Stick- 
ney was the grandson of Judge Samuel Blodget, who in his 
lifetime had been the most active inhabitant of the terri- 
tory now known as Manchester, in the developing of its 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. *29 

resources and establishing industries. Judge Blodget lived 
both in Amoskeag and on this side of the river. He spent 
his fortune, which for the time was quite considerable, on 
his project for a boat canal around Amoskeag Falls and 
had died a few years before, still full of hope for the future 
of his enterprise and seeing with accurate eye the oppor- 
tunities for a larger community where then existed a few 
sandy farms, a goodly lot of pine forests and a most excel- 
lent fishing place. He was the pioneer in the industrial 
and business life of Manchester, and greater recognition 
should be accorded his achievements and influence than 
they have yet received from the people of the city whose 
godfather he was. Amos Weston was, I believe, the grand- 
father of the late Governor James A. Weston, and John G. 
Moor was a leading member of a family which was very 
prominent in the early days, with numerous descendants 
still living here. 

The petition of the town was duly presented to the 
legislature, and on June 13, 1810, John Langdon, as gov- 
ernor, affixed his signature to an engrossed bill, reading as 
follows: 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 

In the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ten 

An Act to Alter the Name of the Town of Derryfield in the County 
of Hillsborough, in said State to the Name of Manchester. 

Whereas the inhabitants of the town of Derryfield in the County of 
Hillsborough, have petitioned this legislature to have the name of said 
town altered to that of Manchester; therefore, 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General 
Court convened: 

That said town of Derryfield shall forever hereafter be called and 
known by the name of Manchester, any law, usage or custom to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

On this bill are the following endorsements, showing 
the rapid progress of the bill: 



30 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

In the House of Representatives, June 13th, 1810. 

The foregoing bill having had three several readings passed to be 
enacted. 

Sent up for concurrence. 

(Signed) CHARLES CUTTS, Speaker. 

In the Senate June 12th, 1810. 
This bill having been read a third time was enacted. 

(Signed) WILLIAM PLUMMER, President. 

Goodly signatures were those on this name certificate 
of Manchester. Charles Cutts, a Harvard graduate, law- 
yer, twice United States senator to fill vacancies, and serv- 
ing eleven years as secretary of the federal senate. Wil- 
liam Plummer, liberally educated, lawyer, speaker of the 
state house of representatives, governor four times. United 
States senator, and the one presidential elector in 1820 
who refused to cast his vote for James Monroe, on the 
ground that no man but Washington ought to be honored 
by receiving the unanimous vote of the electoral college as 
president. 

And John Langdon, merchant, patriot, member of 
the Continental Congress, member of the convention that 
framed the National Constitution, president of the state 
under the first constitution and governor several times 
under the amended one. United States senator and first 
president pro tern of the senate, offered the post of secre- 
tary of the navy in 181 1 and the nomination for vice-pres- 
ident on the ticket with Madison in 181 2, but declining 
both these honors. 

But those official sponsors, could they gaze on our city 
at the close of one hundred years since they signed that 
act, might well say that the name then given was truly 
prophetic and that no ironical criticism of the choice of 
names can justly be made. 

Let us look a little at this newly christened town of 
Manchester. There were 113 resident and 17 non-resident 
tax payers carried on the tax list of 1810. The largest tax 
paid was by Isaac Huse, and his tax was ^16.30. Besides 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 31 

the farms, horses, cattle, timber land and one or two small 
grist and saw mills, ^1,350 money at interest were men- 
tioned in the inventory, of which $700 belonged to General 
Stark, the rest being divided among three other men, who, 
with the general, I suppose, were the local representatives 
of the wealthy bond holding class of the day. 

Five chaises were owned in town, three valued at ;55ioo 
apiece, one at $80, while General Stark was charged with 
one at ;^50. The appropriation to pay all town charges was 
5575. The same sum was appropriated to pay for preach- 
ing. There was a meeting house but no church or regular 
preacher, and at town meeting there was an article in the 
warrant to sec if the town would pay Enos Webster for 
boarding Mr. Pickles when the latter was preaching in 
town, but the article was dismissed. Seventy-five dollars 
a year without refreshments seems to be the value placed 
on preaching. There was about one liquor license for each 
one hundred of population, and each poll tax payer was 
assessed $1.50 to pay for the repair of highways, of which 
there were enough to call for the election, if not the ser- 
vices, of eight highway surveyors. The town clerk was 
voted $s for one year's service, and the three outgoing 
selectmen were paid respectively $13.75, $12.25 ^^d $10.25 
for their time and services the last year. 

Fishwards seem to have been important officers, seven 
being chosen. Three corders of wood, six surveyors of 
lumber, a culler of stones were chosen. A sealer of 
weights and measures was elected, and the town was so 
extravagant as to vote that "a chest be purchased at the 
expense of the town to put the weights and measures in." 
The selectmen were voted fence viewers and overseers of 
the poor. A town clerk, a treasurer and one constable 
were elected, and the collection of taxes was "vendued to 
the lowest bidder." This seems a frugal and economical 
municipal government. The warrant contained an article 
"to see if the Town will provide any support for" a certain 
man. "he being old and unable to care for himself," but the 



32 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. K. 

meeting voted to dismiss the article. Judged by this vote, 
it might not be unfair to call the town something "nearer" 
the truth than economical, but loyalty to the old community 
bids us to be careful in our choice of adjectives. 

In examining old records and studying the history of 
former times, one is forcibly struck by the proofs that 
human nature is a good deal the same from one generation 
to another, and that men's motives and actions are very 
similar in similar circumstances, though in widely different 
times and places. We hear a good deal nowadays about 
ring rule, boss control, one-man power and such like in 
political affairs, and we are told that the country ought to 
return to the practices of the early days of the republic 
when the people were under no dictation, but, as it were, 
spontaneously acted without suggestion or direction. But 
I am fearful that the town meeting held in Derryfield in 
1810 would not bring much comfort to those who would 
seek an example of disinterested leadership and altruistic 
political management. The records show an example of 
political cohesiveness and co-operation on the part of the 
leaders of the town that, to-day, would call forth the loud- 
est denunciations from those who did not happen to be of 
the elect. 

At that meeting, Thomas Stickney was chosen select- 
man and a member of the committee to petition the legis- 
lature for a change of the name of the town. John G. 
Moor was elected town treasurer of highways, surveyor of 
lumber, fish ward, and a member of the legislative com- 
mittee. Isaac Huse was elected selectman, highway sur- 
veyor, sealer of weights and measures, and hogreeve when 
there was something for that official to do. Samuel Moor, 
Jr., was chosen selectman, town clerk and surveyor of lum- 
ber, and Messrs. Stickney, Huse and Samuel Moor, Jr., 
were ex-officio fence viewers and overseers of the poor. 
For years before and after 18 10, the records show a similar 
centering of official control in a block of a few men. 

The historian calls these men leading citizens, and 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 33 

proves it by the records. Is it possible that what was 
leadership then would be ring rule or bossism now? Or is 
it true that "bossism" is simply one way of describing long 
and successful leadership in political matters, and a "ring" 
merely another term for a number of leaders acting 
together for a common purpose? As we study the past, 
we are apt to grow more lenient in our estimate of the 
men and measures of the present and to be more charitable 
in our opinions and criticisms, for this reason, if no other, 
the study of history ought to be encouraged. 

In 1810, the Democratic-Republican candidate for gov- 
ernor received 41 votes to 37 for his Federalist opponent, 
with one scattering. 

For nearly thirty years after it received its new name, 
no great changes took place in the town. In 1820, the 
census showed a population of 761; and in 1830, 887; and 
in 1840, 3,325, and most of the last increase was made in 
the two years immediately preceding the last-named census 
taking. The War of 1812 made but little impression on 
the town except to cast it into the slough of hacd times, 
which prevailed all through New England. It was not a 
popular war hereabout, and few enlistments were made 
except enough to fill the quota of the town under the pres- 
ident's call for troops. The number and personnel of 
those who did serve is not accurately known, but in 1816 it 
was "voted to make up ten dollars per month" to the 
drafted soldiers. 

In 181 5, the legislature granted the town the privi- 
lege of choosing a representative without the assistance 
of Litchfield and, in 1816, Isaac Huse, who was still select- 
man and highway surveyor, was elected the first repre- 
sentative of Manchester in the general court. In 1814, 
the navigation of the Merrimack River was fully opened, 
and the first boat came through. The river became a con- 
siderable water highway, whose traflic, though it was im- 
paired by the opening of the Concord Railroad in 1842, 
continued in bulky articles nearly a score of years there- 
after. For many years the care of the pound called for 



34 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

considerable attention, and the boarding of the town pau- 
pers was auctioned off to the lowest bidder. 

After 1810, religious matters received but little atten- 
tion from the town meeting. At the annual meeting in 
1814, it was voted not to raise any money for the support 
of preaching, and nothing more was done till 1827, when 
additional emphasis was given to the refusal to spend pub- 
lic money for religious exercises, when it was decided not 
to allow certain money coming from the sale of "minis- 
terial land," to go towards the support of a minister. 
This was recognized by those who desired a town sup- 
ported church as their Waterloo. In 1828, a Presbyterian 
Church Society was organized at Manchester Center, which 
afterwards united with the Congregational Society of 
Amoskeag, and in 1839 the two became the First Congre- 
gational Church of Manchester. No church edifice was 
built by these church societies until 1840, when the first 
church on Hanover street was constructed, standing where 
the Opera House block now is. A Methodist Episcopal 
church was formed and a building was erected, in 1829, at 
the Centre, a few rods south of the old meeting house, and 
this seems to have been the first building in Manchester 
erected exclusively for religious purposes, Universalist 
and Baptist societies held servies in Amoskeag some years 
before 1840, but they met in a hall, and not till after that 
date were church buildings erected. 

From 1 82 1 to 1826, a controversy long drawn out and 
bitterly contested by Manchester's people existed over the 
building of the Mammoth road as the more direct stage 
route from Concord to Lowell. Only one man in Man- 
chester favored it, and he is said to have kept a tavern or 
been in the position to keep one on the line of the road. 
Finally the court ordered it built, and Manchester reluc- 
tantly, but obediently, constructed the part within the 
town limits. But it was not built soon enough to make it 
worth while. If built when it was originally planned, it 
might have paid for itself in its use, but coming so late, it 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 35 

had but few years of coaching before the newly con- 
structed railroad changed all lines and methods of travel. 

In 1822, General Stark, the most noted man then res- 
ident in New Hampshire, was gathered to his fathers. He 
sleeps in the little burying ground in the attractive park 
bearing his name, which, by the gift of his descendants, 
has become the property of the city. The plain granite 
shaft, markings the spot, is visible from the passing trains, 
but very few of the travelers realize that this is the monu- 
ment of one who, in the darkest hours of the patriots' strug- 
gle, led his New Hampshire regiment to Vermont, and at 
Bennington broke the power of Burgoyne's army and con- 
tributed so largely to the final triumph of America's cause. 
This hero of the Indian War, the survivor of Bunker Hill 
and Trenton, deserves better treatment. Let us hope that 
sometime the Nation will provide above his grave a more 
fitting memorial, and if the Nation will not then the State 
ought to do so. 

In 1824, the town showed its lack of appreciation of 
its own political importance when it voted, 90 to o, to make 
Amherst the county seat of Hillsborough county, and it 
displayed its customary frugality, in 1836, by voting, 67 
against 15, against the establishment of a state asylum for 
the insane. In 1836, the old meeting house at the Centre 
was repaired at the expense of ^500 and was divided into 
two stories, the upper story for a school-room and the lower 
one for a town hall. 

So much for a general view of thirty years from 1810 
to 1840. If nothing more than I have narrated had hap- 
pened, Manchester, to-day, might be like Bedford or Litch- 
field or Merrimack. But Manchester had a resource not 
vouchsafed to any other town. Amoskeag Falls were her 
one big asset, and the development of their power is the 
reason for the city. 

The project of manufacturing cloth near Amoskeag 
Falls was started in 1809, by Benjamin Prichard and 
Ephraim, David and Robert Stevens, and in 1810 they 



36 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

formed a company under the name "Amoskeag Cotton & 
Wool Factory." They had a small mill on the west bank 
of the river in Amoskeag. They had little capital or 
machinery and their output was diminutive. 

After September, 1815, little was done in the manu- 
facturing line until 1822, when there was a sale to other 
parties, who were unsuccessful, and finally, in 1825, Dr. 
Oliver Dean and his associates got control of the property 
They constructed and operated mills on the west bank and 
on the island in the river and made sheetings, shirtings and 
tickings, and the last became quite famous under the name 
"A C A Ticking," still a valuable trademark. 

In 1831, the present Amoskeag Manufacturing Com- 
pany, of which Dr. Dean was the first president and agent, 
was chartered with a capital of ;J5 1 ,ooo,oco, a large sum for 
those days — for the purpose of taking over the old com- 
pany, developing water power, acquiring and selling land, 
selling sites and power to other manufacturing concerns, 
building and operating mills of its own, and so bringing 
about the growth of a flourishing manufacturing town 
worthy the name it had been given. By 1835, the com- 
pany had acquired the power rights at Amoskeag Falls, at 
Hooksett and Garvin's Falls, most of the land on the east 
bank and quite a large tract on the west bank. 

It built a dam and canals; built and sold a mill and 
boarding houses to the Stark Mills, newly organized; built 
two mills and other buildings of its own, and in 1838 and 
1839 had its first two land sales, following the plan it had 
prepared, in accordance with which so much of our city 
has been built up. From this time on, the future was 
assured. Mill followed mill in the Amoskeag and Stark 
yards; then the Manchester Mills; the Langdon and 
Amory came in due course. Where a few farms and pine 
lands had lain almost in solitude, a town grew up as by 
miracle. In six years, following 1840, seven thousand peo- 
ple flocked here to find work and homes. The manage- 
ment of town affairs was taken over by the men of the 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 37 

"New Village," in 1840, after a bitter fight in town meeting 
with the old inhabitants. A town hall was built, in 1841, 
on the site of the present city hall, and town meeting was 
held there in 1842. The building was burned in 1844, and 
in 1845 another town hall, the historic structure in which 
we are holding these exercises, was erected at a cost of 
1^35.000. 

In 1846, the town became a city, and its history since 
then is too well known to need extended comment now. 
Fourteen years ago, a whole week was given over to the 
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the granting of 
the city charter. Eloquent words in prose and poetry, 
uttered by men who, by their own experience or from tra- 
dition or record, were qualified to describe the events of 
the half century, made known to all the story of the city's 
life, and they have been published and bound in lasting 
form. During those fifty years, the city grew and pros- 
pered. Its manufactures increased and became more 
diversified, churches and schoolhouses were numerously 
constructed, the city became a county seat, the river was 
spanned by bridges, parks and commons were beautified 
a bountiful water supply was acquired, police and fire pro- 
tection were amply provided, and it was fitting that our 
people should celebrate as they did their civil, industrial 
and social advancement. And they had the right to be 
proud, as we are all proud, of the record made in the days 
when rebellion was trying to destroy the republic and Man- 
chester sent more than one in every ten of its people to 
battle for freedom and for Union. There were tears in 
Manchester following every battle during those awful 
days. Almost every great battlefield was reddened with 
the blood of Manchester men. The spirit of Stark ani- 
mated the boys of '61, and a grateful city erected to the 
memory of those who gave their services on land and sea 
the beautiful monument which we hope will teach to future 
generations the full meaning of the loyalty and victory of 
the heroic dead. 



38 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

Since 1896, little of startling note has transpired. 
The growth of the city has continued its even way. On 
the west bank of the river has grown up a population 
nearly twice that of the whole city in 1846. More and 
better mills have been built. The figures showing the out- 
put of cloth by the Amoskeag Company are overwhelming. 
Over 100,000 miles of cotton and woolen cloth, besides 
nearly 2,000,000 bags. The shoe manufacturing industry 
has become so established that Manchester stands among 
the leading cities of the country in that line of business. 
No pestilence or great calamity has been experienced. 
Though the annals of the last fourteen years have been 
uneventful, they have been years of progress and pros- 
perity. When in 1898, in the cause of an outraged human- 
ity, the United States went to war with Spain, the quota 
of Manchester in the troops called for in New Hampshire 
was filled and the Sheridan Guards marched away, ready 
to do and dare all that mightconfront them. Happily, the 
war was short; no great sacrifice was demanded. But the 
spirit of 1898 was the same as that of other days. It 
proved that martial valor and patriotic fervor still exist 
among the American people and that we may rest assured 
that, whenever duty shall call in the name of a periled 
country, the sublimest effort and most daring sacrifice will 
be forthcoming. 

Thus much of the "Then." What of the "Now"? 

We may safely hazard the guess that our present pop- 
ulation is not far below 70,000, a cosmopolitan population, 
and, speaking generally, industrious, law abiding and 
decent. Large crime is and always has been rare in Man- 
chester. Murder and riot have been so exceptional that 
the Parker murder and the Firemen's Muster riot stand 
out with unique significance. There is abundant church 
room for all, and no child goes untaught for lack of proper 
school facilities. A varied library of nearly 60,000 volumes 
is extensively patronized by our people. Many miles of 
streets are bordered with homes, owned by the occupants. 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 39 

The relations between employer and employee, in our man- 
ufacturing establishments, are generally good. Wages are 
as high as in any similar manufacturing center. Strikes 
and other labor troubles have been scarce in our city. 
Taxation is not excessively high, and few cities anywhere 
can point to a better financial condition than that of Man- 
chester. The water works alone are worth the whole city 
debt, and those who have been in charge of our municipal 
affairs should receive the credit due them for keeping the 
debt within such reasonable limits. The death rate here is 
low, and the birth rate in some streets is high enough to 
gladden the heart of a Roosevelt. All in all, Manchester 
is a good place to live in, a good place in which to have 
one's home, and for him who has finished his work and left 
his earthly home, the Valley cemetery or the Pine Grove 
affords a beautiful place for the last long sleep. 

The former citizens of Manchester did their work 
well. The present generation can find enough to do to 
satisfy the present needs of the city. We need better and 
cleaner streets and smoother sidewalks. We need a decent 
theatre. We need several assembly halls on the ground 
floors, with ample means of exit. We badly need a new, 
large and better library building. 

We need to realize the fact that our industrial situation 
is a peculiar one. We have few employers but many 
employees, and the welfare of the whole community is 
dependent on the success of a very few great business 
enterprises. Whatever is advantageous for those enter- 
prises is advantageous for the whole city. If they are 
successful, the city is prosperous. They bear a large part 
of the expenses of the city and, naturally, desire an effi- 
cient and economical administration of municipal affairs 
and are entitled to a proper influence therein. We need to 
cultivate and maintain the most friendly relations between 
those enterprises and the city, for they cannot be hurt or 
crippled without injury to us all. They should bear their 
just share of the public burden, and they and the citizens 



40 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N, H. 

at large should harmoniously and cordially work together 
for the common good. 

We need, also, a keener sense of civic pride — a pride 
that will promote a high toned and intelligent public opin- 
ion and induce each citizen, honestly and to the best of his 
ability to discharge his duty to the city. With such a 
public opinion and such citizenship, the second century of 
Manchester life will be brighter than the first, and the 
work of the sons will outrival the accomplishments of the 
fathers. 

At the close of the oration by Mr. Jones, Mrs. Nellie 
M. Browne read a poem, written by her for the occasion. 

A TRIBUTE TO THIS DAY 

BY NELLIE M. BROWNE 

'• 'Tis sweet to be remembered," and does it not mean 
more to us than tablets of stone or costly marble.? 

"Remember me" was repeated hundreds of years ago 
and, though handed down to us through the long vista of 
years, it has lost none of its significance; rather added 
fresh laurels unto itself until to-day we are bound together 
in one unbroken wreath representing the bond of common 
humanity. 

It has been truly said that the patriotism of a people is 
measured largely by the respect they show their ancestors. 
The fabric of Manchester was given to you and yours; 
you have fashioned a splendid garment. 

A hundred years to Manchester's glory; 

A hundred years to Manchester's gain; 
You have already heard this wonderful story; 

I leave it for others to sing the refrain. 

So I come not to-night with song or legend — 
You have all conned them o'er and o'er; 

I have but a simple tribute to bring you — 
A fleeting fancy of the days of yore. 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 41 

The memories of the golden past — 

The friends we used to meet and know — 
The old log house — we can see it yet — 

That used to stand here in the long ago. 

One hundred years our bark's been launched, 

On the River of Time, and still alway, 
If rough the waters, the course is clear, 

And skies grow brighter day by day. 

Though the frost of time, which never melts, 

Has touched with care full many a brow. 
Yet young of heart they seem to be, 

And loyal ones are left to us now. 



We have kept the faith! a sacred trust, 
And have paused along life's way, 

Just to leave a little message on the sand; 
It may prove a help to others, 
Who some day will pass this way — 

They will read it and will understand. 



And when all shall be called home. 
And the sun sinks low in the west, 

We shall know we did our duty — 
They will know we did our best. 



Following Mrs. Browne's poem, Harland Davis, the 
boy soprano of Manchester High school, sang "The 
Hymns of the Old Church Choir," and responded to an 
encore with a typical New Hampshire folk song. He was 
accompanied on the piano by his sister, Miss Nellie Davis, 

The President then introduced the Rev. William H. 
Morrison of Nashua, a former pastor of one of Manches- 
ter's churches for several years, and a person who has 
retained his interest in our city. 

In opening his address, Mr. Morrison expressed a deep 
interest in the entertainment, — deemed it an honor and a 
privilege to speak before such an audience, and believed 



42 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

that the people would look back on the centennial anni- 
versary of the naming of Manchester with pride, and for- 
ward to the next hundredth anniversary with hopeful antici- 
pations. 

The topic of his address was "The Ideal City," of 
which the following is an outline: 

THE IDEAL CITY 

What are some of the things that go to make up the 
ideal city? 

First. It is a city of homes. You can't make an 
ideal city out of boarding houses and fiats. The life of a 
home must be strong in such a city. The Good Book says 
it is not good for man to be alone, and that is true. Vesta, 
the goddess of the hearth, must be one of the divinities 
of that city. Men work for home, men fight for home. 
Be it ever so humble there is no place like it. Husband, 
wife, children, make up a holy trinity which the ideal city 
must have. 

Second. It is a city that is at work. An idle brain is 
the devil's workshop. It is just so with an idle city. 

Ask any man who has ever lived, who has made a suc- 
cess in life, how he did it, and he will give a good part of 
the credit to work. There are two kinds of slums in every 
city: There is the slum in the hovel, and the slum in the 
palace. And in one respect they are alike. The people 
who live in both are loafers. They have nothing to do but 
hatch up deviltry. Fill the city with industry, and you do 
away with the slums of both kinds. 

Third. It is a city that is clean. 

Now that word clean can have several meanings. I 
will give it two. Clean and Mcell-kept streets and parks, 
with the neat and trig appearance of the home that is 
taken care of by the good housekeeper. Streets free from 
the temptations and pitfalls that curse every city of our 



CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 43 

land to-day. Where night or day your wife or mine can go 
anywhere without fear of insult or harm, and where the 
children will never meet that which will lead them into 
wrong. 

Fourth. It is a city with ideal schools. 

Schools above politics. Controlled by no church. 
Actuated by just one aim — to mind their own business of 
giving every scholar just the best education possible for 
the money. One of the foundation stones of our nation is 
the common school, and you might just as well try to 
pluck up Mt. Washington by the roots and throw it into 
Winnipesaukee as to take it from this land. It does a 
work that nothing else can do, and it certainly has its part 
to play in building up the ideal city. 

Fifth. It is a city that cares for the poor and the 
weak. 

As long as men and women exist, there will be those 
who can accumulate and those who can't; those who are 
strong and those who are weak. Now the mischief from 
this condition of things comes from the way in which these 
classes treat each other. 

When men recognize the fact that with riches and 
power come responsibilities which they should meet and 
assume, you have the ideal city so far as they are con- 
cerned. 

Sixth. It is a city where every man and woman who 
can read and write goes to the caucus and the polls. 

It was when they slumbered and slept that the tares 
were sown by the enemy. The boss can rule and the ring 
can work if few vote. When the many walk up and do 
their duty, there is plenty of dynamite to blow the boss 
and the ring into the air. In the ideal city, suffrage will 
not depend on sex or money or color or race, but on 
brains. 

Seventh. It is a city that goes to church. 



44 CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H. 

Friends, what is the special work of the church? Not 
•ists" nor "isms," but to fill this world with the disposition 
and the courage to do right. I say this is the special work 
of the church. It is, and it is the only institution that does 
this work. Our Lord and Master was the embodiment of 
these two things: He wanted to do right, and he dared to 
do right. The ideal city goes to church. It takes these 
two things that the church stands for, and weaves them 
into the warp of its civic life. That is what, more than 
anything else, makes it the ideal city. 

O friends, this is the mark that I hold up before Man- 
chester this evening. With your splendid water power,, 
with your mills, with your shops, you have a claim to the 
title of the Queen City of the Granite State. As the new 
days come and go, it is my hope, my prayer, that you may 
so use your blessings that every year will bring your city 
nearer and nearer to that other city that hath foundation 
whose builder and maker is God. 

At the close of Mr. Morrison's eloquent address, an ex- 
pression of thanks was given him by a rising vote, and 
while the pianist played the crowd dispersed, feeling that 
the event in every particular was an entire success, re- 
flecting great credit upon the Historic Association. 




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